It is commonplace in automotive vehicle instrumentation to use electric gages driving pointers mounted near the gage movement. Preferably such gages are of the air core type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,689 and have a plastic bobbin supporting an outer winding, a spindle journaled in two opposite walls of the bobbin, and a permanent magnet armature within the bobbin and secured to the spindle between the journal points. There are some applications where there is not enough room to locate the bobbin assembly adjacent the pointer and it is then required to use a very long spindle to span the distance between the pointer and the bobbin. Such an alteration to the conventional gage structure is unworkable because the mass of the pointer is the greatest mass in the system and the bearings will not withstand the loads imposed on them. A stronger structure of the same general design can be made but only at a significant cost penalty.